Chapter 161 160. The legendary prince is coming
The weather is getting hotter in April.
The account book for March of "A Sichuan Restaurant" in the county town has been sent to Lei Li by someone. Compared with the cold weather in January and February, the turnover has not decreased but increased a lot.
Because saltpeter is used to make ice to cool down, ice basins are placed everywhere in the restaurant to let out the cold air. The wine, drinks and fruit plates are also chilled. Eating spicy dishes and sips of iced drinks will whet your appetite and make you reluctant to leave.
The restaurant has a lively and spacious lobby, as well as private rooms on the second, third and fourth floors.
This dish is suitable for the whole family or friends to eat together. Even if it is used to entertain guests from other places, it is novel and interesting, and the number of customers will naturally increase instead of decrease.
Even Sichuan restaurants have ice basins on hand, so naturally pastry shops and dessert shops have followed suit, but the price is half a cent more expensive than the non-ice basins.
Sugar is expensive and sweets are even more expensive.
Ordinary people only buy one or two pieces of candy during festivals, so this is a mid-to-high-end business. The people who come and go are naturally not short of money, and the sales of chilled food are even better.
The subtropical area is really hot.
When business was good, people would naturally come to take advantage of the situation and ask where the ice came from. However, Chen Xiangrang was an old hand in business, and he always said that it was ice stored during the winter, and that he had stored too much, so he used it so extravagantly.
Those people thought so too.
Last winter, Qingmi County was unusually cold, and the snow was unusually heavy and long. If the snow on the eaves was not swept for a few days, you had to be careful of landslides. Wouldn't that help store more ice?
In the past, the winter in Qingmi County was not cold enough, and even the rivers did not freeze. The ice had to be brought from the cold places in the north. Even if the Meng family had a fleet, it was time-consuming and laborious, and the price of food that could be touched by ice went up.
In fact, some people don’t believe it.
No matter how much ice you store, you can't spend it to death. There are even ice basins in the restaurant lobby, just like an ice cellar. Aren't you afraid that the ice will be gone by July and August?
The summer in Qingmi County is so long!
If the summer is too dry, it will be hot in November, and it will rain and become humid, turning into the annoying return of the south wind.
But you can't not believe it.
County Magistrate Xu Xingzhe is protecting Lei Li. As the saying goes, people should not fight against officials, let alone a man who has all the power in the county. Even if he wants to know the method of making ice, he cannot offend others and damage the harmony.
"Uncle Chen really knows how to wave the flag."
After hearing what the errand boy said, Lei Li smiled and asked his subordinates to give him a reward. The errand boy thanked him profusely and went down happily.
This account book is a copied copy. Lei Li has looked at it and there is no need to send it back to Chen Xiangrang, unless there are any errors or omissions and he needs to go back and reconcile with his subordinates.
Lei Li flipped through it casually for a few times and found that in addition to the account book, there was also a letter.
He had been learning Chinese characters from Zhou Yi for quite some time, and he could nitpick words and use allusions to pretend to be polite. Reading a letter was naturally no problem for him, but the more he read the letter, the more his brows furrowed.
"Husband!"
"What's wrong?"
Zhou Yi was changing clothes for Xiao Shengjiang in the house.
Little Ginger was playing with a wooden horse while eating mung bean soup. He accidentally knocked over the bowl and got his clothes dirty. He was too young to change it himself, so his father had to help him.
Hearing Daddy calling A'Dad, Daddy went out immediately, and Little Ginger ran out after him, "What's the matter? What's the matter? Why is Daddy calling A'Dad?"
"I'm asking Dad to work."
Lei Li touched Xiao Shengjiang's head, found an excuse to let Xiao Shengjiang go out and play, and dismissed the servants before taking out the letter to show Zhou Yi.
"It's about those princes again."
As he spoke, he couldn't help but complain, "There are so many things going on every day. Didn't we go to Nanjiang from Jingdu City by land? And now we suddenly want to take a boat back? And we're even heading all the way to Qingmi County. Why are we running to such a remote place?"
The letter was concise.
The third and fourth princes completed the task of eliminating locusts in Nanjiang, and then kept an eye on the spring plowing in Nanjiang. Now that the spring plowing is completed and the refugees who fled famine in Nanjiang have almost returned, everything has been arranged, and the two princes are about to return to Kyoto City.
When he left, he was so excited that he wished he could reach Nanjiang in one day. When he came back, he was very proud of himself - he was praised by the emperor for his good work, so he wanted to take the water route to return slowly.
The river from Zhongchuan to Nanjiang was blocked by Songyong. If one wanted to go to Nanjiang by water from Kyoto City, one could only go to Zhongchuan by land and then take the water to Xiling, and then go to Nanjiang by water. It was quite tortuous and not as accessible as the official road.
It was a period of severe drought at that time, so traveling by water was slow and we had to travel by land.
There's no rush when you come back.
The Fourth Prince is a man who loves pleasure and comfort. Taking the water route, he can also take the opportunity to appreciate the customs and culture of Xiling and Zhongchuan, and enjoy the beauty of flowers and willows.
Qingmi County is a large county with well-developed water transportation and is a relatively important water transportation hub in Xiling.
There was a high probability that the prince's fleet would reach Qingmi County. In addition, someone said - maybe it was the refugees who ran back home from Qingmi County - that the people in Qingmi County were nice, the roads were good, the scenery was beautiful, and there was fresh food, the spicy taste was something I had never seen before.
"The common people have never seen this, but the prince has certainly seen it. Hearsay is always exaggerated."
"But this Fourth Prince has no sense of responsibility at all. He didn't want to be praised by the Emperor and return to report early, and then ask for more credit. He insisted on coming to see if he had seen our spicy dishes before."
Lei Li was speechless.
Although he liked to do business and make money, he knew that if the prince really came to eat and praised his food, even if he just took a bite and didn't praise it, his "Sichuan restaurant" would definitely become famous.
But for those related to the royal family, even small good things may become big things.
"Let's not talk about the distant future. If the Third or Fourth Prince becomes allergic to chili peppers, or suffers from any dietary problems due to acclimatization, we wouldn't be able to kill them even if we had three heads and six arms."
Lei Li felt that when he had no money in the past and could only afford one meal but not the next, he was not as worried as he is now. If he was not careful, he would not even have the chance to eat.
"I am the chief in-charge, and you are the one who came up with the recipe. You have to show your support in front of the prince."
"If someone says, 'The prince came to your restaurant, and you didn't even show up,' and charges us with disrespecting the prince, even the Meng family won't be able to protect us."
"really."
Zhou Yi also knew the relationship between them, and he was afraid that there would be fierce fighting among the princes.
The Second Prince has brains but no connections, and he'd be resigned to not fighting for his place. The Third Prince also has no connections and is a mediocre person, but having earned his stripes in the Nanjiang incident, I wonder if this will give rise to other ideas.
The Fourth Prince has the support of the Queen and the Prime Minister, so it goes without saying how powerful he is. It's just that he is not a good person. However, if the road is paved well, being an obedient and capable A Dou can also be a good path for him.
——However, Zhou Yi felt that the fourth prince was unlikely. If he became emperor, the empress dowager was from the prime minister's family and controlled the harem, and the prime minister controlled the former dynasty. Wouldn't he become a puppet emperor whose power was marginalized by his in-laws?
Are there not many such cases in history? There is also the famous case of using the emperor to control the princes.
Although the Fifth Prince's in-laws are mediocre, he is a smooth-talking person who knows how to deal with people and can earn merits. In addition, there are rumors in the court that the First Prince's in-laws, the general who guards the country, secretly supports the Fifth Prince, and can be said to be on par with the Fourth Prince.
Now I have gone to Dongyuan to resolve the conflict with the Border Mule Tribe, and I don’t know what the situation is.
If it goes smoothly without causing casualties or wasting money, it will be a great achievement; if it does not go smoothly and the conflict turns into a war, the Fifth Prince may also be able to make meritorious deeds on the battlefield, and his prestige will surpass that of the Fourth Prince.
"However, I remember Meng Luo saying that the eldest prince seemed to have been shot by a stray arrow during the war with the Border Nomads and died from his injuries?"
Lei Li suddenly said, "If the Fifth Prince is like the First Prince, then the most powerful one will be the Fourth Prince. But if the Fourth Prince dies in Xiling——"
That means the fifth prince has the greatest hope of inheriting the throne.
The husband and wife looked at each other.
There was silence for a moment.
Zhou Yiqing cleared his throat and said, "It's not that bad. Maybe we've just listened to too many operas and overthink things. Although there are many disputes in the royal family, there's no such thing as poisoning the prince in public..."
Why not?
Who knows whether the eldest prince really died from a stray arrow or was murdered by someone else?
The two fell silent again.
Seeing Zhou Yi pursing his lips and frowning in worry, Lei Li suddenly found it a little funny and laughed. He used both hands to spread Zhou Yi's brows, "The prince hasn't arrived yet, and we've scared ourselves to death. Who knows, this might be a good opportunity for us to make a name for ourselves."
"Which other restaurant in the world would be so lucky as to be visited by two princes?"
"I don't want to think about it. Anyway, if we go to the underworld together as a family, we can still be reincarnated together. It means we will have a companion on the road to the underworld."
Lei Likou Huahua.
Zhou Yi relaxed a bit after being interrupted by him, and scolded him with a smile, "What am I talking about? You're already thinking about the underworld for something that doesn't exist. If your parents hear you, they'll scold you again."
—
Because the prince is coming to Qingmi County.
Lei Li and Zhou Yi could no longer stay in the village, but they did not take their parents and little Jiang with them. The couple returned to the county town to discuss countermeasures with Chen Xiangrang Mengluo.
Unexpectedly, County Magistrate Xu Xingzhe also came. It is conceivable that as the head of a county, he should be under the greatest pressure. If he does a good job, he may not be promoted, but if he does not do a good job, he will be punished. Demotion and scolding are the least of his punishments.
Finally, it was agreed upon, but no one was too happy. They just hoped that everything would go smoothly without any mistakes.
Nanjiang is close to Xiling.
Although the prince's fleet stopped on the way, it arrived within a few days after receiving the letter - it was too late and people were worried that something might happen on the way and they would be blamed by their superiors.
The magnificent and luxurious ship docked at the port was a sight never seen before. The ship had high floors, carved beams and painted rafters, colorful eaves everywhere, jade railings, golden animal faces and colorful glass heads.
There were also a group of female maids, male servants and guards accompanying them, each standing in their own position, forming a mighty and imposing presence.
Lei Li lowered his head and bent slightly, only glancing at him briefly without daring to look any further, for fear of being accused of disrespect.
County Magistrate Xu Xingzhe led a group of county officials and common people to kneel down and said respectfully in a loud voice:
"Qingmi County Magistrate Xu Xingzhe and the people of Qingmi County pay their respects to the Third and Fourth Princes. May Your Highnesses be in good health and good fortune."
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